C0unting Zer0s
by UberPyro
Summary: A post Borderlands 2 story about the future of Hyperion, Pandora, and the Vault hunters as well as Zer0's past. Told in 5 chapter episodes that feature all of the best characters from the Borderlands universe as well as a few OC villains. Contains the usual Salvador epicness as well as a Zer0/Maya and Axton/Maya love traingle. Tune in every weekend to see what our hero's are up to!
1. Chapter 1

A/N This is my first story and I just want to say thanks for clicking on it, if you notice any spelling or grammar mistakes then please leave a review or PM me about them. All reviews are welcome even if you just want to flame about it.

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C0unting Zer0s

Chapter 1: Episode 1

Among the huge skyscrapers and wide paved streets of Opportunity one man would now decide the future of the Hyperion corporation. As Mr. Blake the former PR manager and CEO was sitting down at his old desk to compile his paperwork, he began to contemplate the past few months. He was amazed how far eight mercenaries, no, eight vault hunters had taken a vendetta against Handsome Jack. They had crossed continents, killed entire bandit clans, practically slew a god, and most importantly had cost Hyperion billions of dollars. The last item on Blake's list was the most important because unlike Jack he didn't view Hyperion as his plaything, he viewed it as the future. For example if Blake had been in charge then 1.2 billion dollars wouldn't have been spent on a moon base. Nevermind a moon base that could never hit anything! Blake was a realist and he realized that Pandora was no longer profitable, he would find no peace on Pandora to search for more vaults, only war with the Crimson Raiders and the Slabs. Blake was also no pessimist, he understood that every hero is a villain to someone and while most of the savages living on Pandora viewed them as the metaphorical antichrist the more civilized planets loved Hyperion. They supplied cheap, reliable guns to sensible people like the ones from Eden-5 or the human home world of Earth. They didn't use wood like those idiots at Jakobs or aluminum like the hipsters at Maliwan. While the poor obviously preferred Tediore,and the rich liked Dahl the average man didn't need a machine gun that spews a thousand rounds a second and farts goddamn lightning and many others couldn't afford one like that. They preferred a fast powerful and accurate Hyperion pistol.

"Dang..."said Blake to himself "I'm even starting to think in commercials. If Jack did one thing right as CEO it was to not work at a desk".

He was already taking numerous arthritis medications and missed many of his sons first milestones due to Jack's oppressive working hours or the times when his back pain was almost crippling, and he was sometimes awake the entire night because of his 25 years hunched over his desk trying to not get skewered or pulverized by Handsome Jack when he was in one of his rages.

"Or on his time of the month"snickered Blake quietly

"Now Mr. Blake, for a man of your age that is a bit of an immature joke"said an unseen voice "And as a man of distinguished social aptitude I find that display of crude humor very disappointing.""

"Who's there!" Blake yelled his hands shaking " Show your face you coward"

"As you wish"said the voice as sleek masked head materialized in front of the Blake. Blake opened his mouth dumbfounded and fumbled for his pistol.

"Do not be alarmed Mr. Blake" said the masked man as he rose from his knee and began to tower over Mr. Blake " I am here to help you with your vault hunter problem"

"You and every other schmuck with a grudge" accused Mr. Blake "I am done on Pandora and I'm shipping all Hyperion persona ell off as fast as I can!"

"But Mr. Blake" said the masked man in his icy monotone "I have a way to make the vault hunters kill each other"

An with that it dawned on Mr. Blake that he had seen this mask and armor before, on the most terrifying vault hunter of the group, but the infamous zero on the right shoulder was replaced by a ten. That night Mr. Blake made no phone calls, he listened to a dastardly plan that would unravel what it means to be a vault hunter.

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**Meanwhile in Sanctuary...**

"Holy shit" Axton yelled covered in bits of slag "That was intense. I mean I've been in firefights before but those bandits... They had guns like I have never seen before."

"Umm Axton" said Maya "Despite how interesting I find your nerdgasm over the enemies new hand cannons I think you should be more concerned with our dying friends!"

"Dying?"Axton announced apprehensively "Have you ever listened to Zer0 Maya? "Assassins never die!" he said using his best Zer0 impression "I think he'll be OK."

"In case you haven't noticed pal" Maya said with venom in her voice "He took a bullet for you, so the least you could do was show some concern."

Axton looked down upon the tired broken bodies of Zer0 and Salvador, they both had suffered from a huge blast of eriduim and were just now taking on different symptoms. Salvador was having massive spasms as he tried to walk out of the fast travel station and towards Dr. Zeds Infirmary, his left arm was still slightly smoking after the encounter and on the rest of his body his veins were starting to glow purple. Zer0 on the other accepted that he was injured and was leaning on Maya for support, his armor was torn in places leaking a glowing blue fluid there was also a large crack running up his left side that ended right before the zero on his chest. His mask was heavily damaged and had a large bullet whole in it, unfortunately this had happened before he was splashed with eridium and a copious amount had leaked in through these cracks, there was now a purple glow emanating from it and every now and then a drop of eriduim would fall from his mask and make Zer0 draw a sharp breath, as if he was in pain.

With a slight lift of his head Zer0 began to say"I thank you Maya, I would have horribly died, If not for your help."

"Dammit Zer0" Maya berated "An inch away from death and still confusing us with you haiku speech"Zer0 slowly turned is head towards her as a :) emoticon appeared from his visor and began to fizzle out "Lets get you to Zed, Zer0 we don't want you dying on us.

"LILITH"Axton yelled "WE ARE BACK"

"Jesus Axton"Lilith said rubbing her eyes as she walked onto the balcony of the Raiders HQ "A simple "Hello" would have sufficed, there was no need to wake up the entire neighborhood."

"Well someone isn't happy to see me" said Axton with a sly smile as he walked into the Raiders HQ

Lilith rolled her eyes"Where are the others Axton?"

"Well I'm Here, Maya and Zer0 are at Zed's and Salvador is..."

"Right Damn Here"Salvador announced

"Salvador!"Axton yelled "What are you doing here! You should be at Zeds getting patched up!" Axton and Salvador stared at each other expectantly for a few seconds and then began burst out laughing.

"Phew! Mi Amigo! Axton you really had me going there for a second:" Laughed Salvador

"I Know" Said Axton "you'd have to be really F''ed up to wanna go to Zed for help"

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**Meanwhile in Dr. Zed's Office...**

"And Zed I swear if you attach any other animals body parts to him I will rip out your liver and strangle you with it!" Maya yelled

"Now little Lady..."reassured Dr. Zed trying to calm Maya Down" I may not have the best track record but-"

"Best track record! You mixed Skags with Rakks! How the hell am I supposed to trust you after that! And the incident with Ellie!"Maya screamed, foaming at the mouth.

"Now Maya"Zed said accusingly "We both agreed that that would never be spoken of again in this life or the next and that any who spoke of is would have their tongues ripped out and be fed to Terramourphus."

"I'm sorry Dr. Zed" muttered Maya "I just want you to make sure Zer0 Pulls through OK. It's not that I don't trust you its just... Well I don't trust you"

"Maya, with a being as mysterious, deadly, powerful, and quite frankly plot specific as Zer0, well I'm sure I'll be careful." reassured Zed.

"Plot specific?" questioned Maya

" Why yes, he is one of the four playable main characters in... you know I think I'll let you figure this one out. Have a nice day!" Beamed Zed as he closed the door leaving Maya feeling alone and confused. She listened at the door to the clinic and began to hear wet thumping sounds, almost like the ones you hear from a butcher, and Dr. Zed muttering "Shit" over and over again under his breath. Maya began the short walk back to the raiders HQ and began to recap what had happened after the past few days. Obviously they had killed Handsome Jack, and his warrior, they celebrated and danced and drank, well everybody except for Zer0. Maya didn't get it, she considered herself to be an averagely attractive female and she was pretty young, but every time she flirted with, did a mission,shared a meal or even tried to talk to Zer0 she was met with cold stares and haiku's. Whenever she walked into a room she knew that Salvador and Axton went wide eyed but Zer0 was only ever focused on their current mission or that frigging sword of his. Whenever a normal person would be doing normal things like reading, drinking, hanging out with friends, or playing a video game Zer0 was sharpening that sword. It didn't even make sense! It was a digistuct blade and was never supposed to dull! The only thing she could relate to Zer0's sword sharpening obsession was that Brick was always doing one armed push ups on the balcony of Raiders HQ... Always. In fact the most human Zer0 Ever seemed was this afternoon when they fought the few remnants of the Sawtooth Bandits.

Maya was lost deep in her thoughts as a booming voice came over the loudspeakers around Sanctuary .

"Good Afternoon Sanctuary!" The the deep smooth voice said with a slight Truxican accent "Man have I always wanted to say that! So yeah um, uh, hello..." the voice said transitioning to a higher faster tone with a slightly more pronounced accent " My name is Kain and I was uh... Hired to murder you all. Now normally I wouldn't be the person to attack eight vault hunters inside a giant floating fortress... city... thing... What exactly is this place called? Jenkins!" Kain yelled "What is this place defined as? You don't know? Vault hunters do you have any ideas? You know what! I don't think it matters because you'll all be dead in a few minutes and this city... fortress... Dammit! Will all be smoking rubble. Anyways, I would personally like to thank Scooter for making this brutal massacre possible, By inadvertently, See Jenkins I know big goddamn words too! Sorry about that just trying to prove a point. Where was I again? Inadvertently right! By Inadvertently leaving around so many digistuct modules for me to hack into. Thank you for listening to Air Kain and goooooodnight." Kain announced as static filled the loudspeakers around Sanctuary. Everybody in all of Sanctuary stood still in an erie silence as the static from the loud speakers continued their menacing buzz. Suddenly a high shrill yelling noise started to come from Scooters garage as the awkward mechanic himself began sprinted down the street right before a huge explosion rocked the city and Scooters garage went up in flames. A Robot that looked a bit like an EXP Loader mixed with a Goliath emerged from the rubble an two others soon followed.

Maya scoffed "Three robots? Seriously? This will be no problem

Several Crimson raiders began to advance on it firing round after round into its metallic hide as it slowly turned to face them. It released a red beam from a lens implanted in its chest and all 7 of the Crimson Raiders who were firing at it began to twist and contort with small metal plates emerging from their body's until the all became something that had a resemblance to the architects that Hyperion used to use to fight the vault hunters. The former Crimson Raiders began to advance on the rest of Sanctuary Opening fire on all the other raiders and innocent civilians in front of them. Maya Drew her SMG as Axton and Salvador ran down the road each holding an assault rifle. Salvador had still apparently not recovered from the Eriduim blast as his left arm was still smoking. Salvador of course bring Salvador, gave not a single fuck and started screaming on rapid Spanish as he pulled out two rapid fore Tourge LMG's and opened fire on the robots. The gun in his right hand functioned as any high caliber Tourge machine gun does, spewing hundreds of rounds a minute and causing general death and mayhem. The gun in his left hand however acted a bit different than it was supposed to. Instead of launching explosive bullets his machine gun was firing explosive lasers. Yes, you read it right. EXPLOSIVE FREAKING LASERS! Salvador's eyes widened and he began laughing manically screaming "Die putas die!" As he mowed through a group of 5 of the corrupted Crimson Raiders, jumped on top of the Corrupter's shoulders and emptied both of his buns point blank into his face. Salvador's guns soon ran empty and when the smoke from all the explosions cleared a large crater was were the Corrupter's head used to be.

The other two Corrupter's analyzed what had happened to the now headless victim of Salvador and digistructed protective helmets to stop Salvador's explosives. Axton yelled " Sal! Get rid of those last few corrupted, we got these idiot robots over here." Salvador barely heard him as he was already int the midst of his gunzerking. "Maya!" Axton yelled " You get the on doing towards Zeds and I ll get the on heading towards Moxxi's."

"Sounds like a plan!" Maya yelled back as she ran towards the hulking robot.

Axton slid behind a low stone wall as the Corrupter began its slow walk down the wide avenue in front of Moxxi's bar. "For as deadly as these things are they are pretty friggen slow" Axton muttered to himself. He threw his two saber turrets on the sides of buildings located on either side of the road and they pumped round after round into the Corrupter but they showed no sign of slowing. "Damn" Said Axton popping up and down behind cover to fire shot at the Corrupter "How the hell am I supposed to kill this thing?" As the Corrupter neared his cover he began start sweating and got ready to make a run for it when Claptrap ran screaming across the Corrupter's path and one of its massive hands grabbed Claptrap and brought it up to to the red lens on its chest. A red beam moved slowly up and down Claptrap's chassis and a deep metallic voice said "CL4P-TP unit, obsolete Hyperion tech. Assimilate."

"I have no objection" Axton announced "Just leave me alone"

Claptrap yelled "Minion, nooooooooo! Save me!" In his perpetually cheerful voice. The red beam that had already corrupted numerous Crimson Raiders now zapped claptrap but some thing different happened this time. The robot shivered, stood up straight, dropped Claptrap and its lens turnned blue.

"Whoa" Claptrap said almost as if he was high " This is awesome. I wonder if-" he said as two huge speakers materialized and began playing a dub step at such a high volume that Axton fell to the ground in the fetal position. All of a sudden something flew out of the sky and smashed the Corrupter into a robot pancake. Brick arose out of the rubble covered in robot innards with fire in his eyes and and said with a cold venom "I hate dub step."

Maya on the other hand did not have such an easy time with her robot. It slowly waltzed down the road toward Dr. Zed's office while Maya peppered it with SMG's of various elements that all seemed to do the same Jack Squat to the robot. When the robot was about thirty yards from the office Maya said " I wish I didn't have to do this" obviously lying, she relished whenever she could use her siren powers and knew the others were already astonished at what she could do. She lifted her left hand up and Phaselocked the Corrupter suspending it in the air. Maya smiled, pulled out her handy Conference Call, and blasted away at the now immobile robot. The Corrupter turned its threatening red lens toward a nearby group of Crimson raiders and let loose turning them all into his minions. In unison they looked at Maya yelled and charged with enough ferocity to send shivers up even Bricks spine. Maya cringed and knew she would have to spend another couple thousand dollars at the New-U machine when Deathtrap flew in from behind her and began to lay waste to the corrupted with his claws and laser beam. Gaige jogged up next to Maya and said " Hey girl! Hows it going?"

"I'm a little busy Gaige." Maya said sounding strained

" I'm sorry Maya, that was rude of me, Do you mind if I help out a bit she said gesturing towards the still Phaselocked Corrupter.

" Be my guest" Maya said, Gaige nodded, emitted a scream that would but a Banshee to shame and started blasting away with her treasured Tediore Bunny rocket launcher. The Corrupter sensing it was in danger immediately digistructed an odd looking cannon on the side of its fat head. The cannon rotated in circles for a few seconds and then shot and electrified net at its two assailants trapping them and then knocking them unconscious. Maya awoke a few seconds later with Gaige using a combat knife to cut open the net. "Maya hurry up and wake up would you!" Gaige yelled " The robot got into Zed's office we need to hurry"

Maya immediately became very aware and jumped to her feet "Zer0 is still in there we need to go now" She yelled running to the door and kicking it down "Zer0!" She yelled as she did it. The scene Maya stumbled upon was a bit odd. Maya saw Dr. Zed on the far side of an operating table covered in a glowing blue fluid, Zer0 on the near side with his hand outstretched and in between Maya and Zer0 a pile of molten metal and a threatening red lens.

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A/N There it is ladies and gentlemen the first chapter of my story. If you read it: Thanks you soooooo much, if you didn't: why are you reading the Authors note at the end... Wierdo. Anyway I would love it if you could R&R because the more it gets the quicker I'll get chapter two out. Also if you have any character/ pairing you want just leave it in the review or PM me.

Adios Mustachios!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Hello readers, firstly I know that the description implies a "weekly update" but I had this chapter sitting around for Saturday and thought It really didn't matter. I did have to make a few edits thanks to point number two the awesome review by athos-aramis the author of some really good FF's. Also I swear on the Collectors Edition of Borderlands 2 that I will no longer break the fourth wall (much). Thanks for leaving some points for me to work on and I hope I improved in this chapter. Also thanks to everyone who reviewed and please enjoy the new chapter.

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C0unting Zer0s

Episode 1 Chapter 2

Mr. Blake stood at his office window drinking a hot coffee contemplating what he had done. He had made a deal that only seemed to benefit him, and the man he made the deal with, this Ten fellow, was certainly a professional. Ten had sneaked his way past an entire city of people there to protect him and not killed a single one. When a man who stands at about ten feet tall can do that, he is obviously a professional. However a "Professional" of that caliber wouldn't offer his services to a man of Blake's position for a paltry sum of money. He had worked with plenty of people like that, Jack had been that kind of man, so were the vault hunters, and people like that would never do something out o the goodness of their heart or for some change there was always another motive they always needed more power. Blake was just finishing his cup of coffee when there was a knock on the wooden door to his office. Blake looked disdainfully away from the window and drained his cup down to the rinds, "Somebody always wants something" Blake muttered to himself. Blake walked briskly over to the door and yanked it open to find a barrel chested figure in skintight body armor hulking in the door frame still as a statue, and Blake couldn't even see the mans head he was so big. "Ten? Is that you?" Blake asked

"Yes Blake, I decided to not frighten you again and use the front entrance for its intended purpose" said Ten in his flat robotic monotone as he entered the room and approached the window where Blake was standing moments before.

"Yes... What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out eviscerating vault hunters? You know the reason I'm paying you!"

"I apologize for any inconvenience my plan may cause Mr. Blake but I only came to inform you of the vault hunters next stratagem."

" The vault hunters next move? What should I care? We don't have anything else they want. They killed Jack and his daughter, stole our vault, and cost us more troops and moneys than every scandal we've had combined."

" Blake you are still a weapons manufacturer and a multitrillion dollar galactic organization. You will always have something left to steal."

"So what do they want boy! Out with it!"

Tens head swiveled and looked at Blake "Although I find your tone irritating and insufferable I will answer your question, just know that I am your last hope for turning a profit on Pandora, Do not alienate me." The room was dead silent as Ten turned his head back towards the window and pressed his massive gloved hand on the glass. The glass began to quickly fog up until Ten noticed and removed his hand folding his hands behind his back. "The vault hunters are preparing to combat the army my associate Kain has raised. They are in a terrible financial state however with the removal of numerous investments other companies had made in them they are on the verge of collapse, that was a skillful move on you part Blake." Blake nodded for Ten to continue. "Therefore to supply an army of Crimson Raiders with firearms that will not fail them in battle the vault hunter known as Brick will lead an assault on the only known quality weapon manufacturing plant on Pandora, the Hyperion Arms reserve right here in Opportunity."

Blake looked at Ten's nonchalant attitude and asked in astonishment, and even a bit of admiration "How do you know all this?"

"I used logic, strategy, bandit psychology, and we have a friend on the inside. Now let me see your financial records for this quarter."

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"What on Pandora was that!" Lilith yelled at the room in general. She had assembled all of the Vault Hunters and a few other people of importance in the meeting room of the Crimson Raiders HQ. "We were attacked in our floating city, I honestly thought the whole point of the goddamn floating city was so no more bandits could attack us!"

"Lilith" said Brick

"No Brick, don't "Lilith" me! We paid in our blood sweat and tears to make this city and now some punk-ass Truxican bandit can come up here and-"

"Lilith" Brick repeated sounding calm and collected which was very unlike him.

"Brick! Shut Up! We are trying to come up with a solution to the little problem I want to call surviving! You interrupting me and saying my name over and over and over and freaking over while I am trying to be productive! You just need to too-

"Lilith calm down!"Brick said standing up in a quiet manner, this surprised everybody an stopped Lilith in her tracks " I know who did this"

"What are you doing sitting there trying to be cool then! Why not let me rant on and on about defending the city when you have the answer we need!" Lilith snarled at Brick

"To be fair hija" Salvador offered "this was really more of a lecture than an open circle conversation."

Lilith looked around ready to burst out screaming at every last one of the people in that room but was only met with condescending glares. Lilith let out an exasperated yell and stormed out of the room.

"I'll go try and calm her down" said Mordecai

"Should I come too" Brick asked

"No Brick, you've... you've done enough" Mordecai sighed as he exited the room

"Anyway" said Brick " The main we are fighting is called Kain, you may already know that from his list of announcements he gave us before the invasion started. Just to let you all know I only know him because he used to be one of my Slabs. He was a small and very genial young man but manage to join when he brought me to m knees by remotely shorting out my echo device. He may not be worth much in a fight but he is probably the best engineer on Pandora."

"Wha-" Gaige managed to stutter out feeling betrayed

"Gaige" Brick reassured " I mean no disrespect but you are great at building something and improving on its design endlessly, Kain's game is quantity. Whereas you have spent the past month fine tuning Deathtrap he probably built up an army of robots in the same amount of time. He uses an ingenious software file called c0rruption to download malware onto..."

Zer0's head perked up at the mention of c0urruption and began to leave the room.

"Zer0! I'm not done here!" Brick yelled after him but Zer0 paid him no heed "Maya will you please go after him and make sure he's not doing anything too illegal?" Brick said feeling dismayed. Maya nodded her head and quickly followed Zer0 out the door and was leaving as Brick muttered "Man this leader crap is hard" with his head in falling into his hands.

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Zer0 slid down the ladder into his room in the basement and took off his mask to get a cool clean drink of water, which oddly enough was still a scarcity on Pandora. He took a quick look around his room to see if everything was in order. Although it was hard to call it his "room" because it was a cave he had discovered when setting up security cameras around Sanctuary. He liked his privacy so he denied the room Lilith had offered him inside the HQ and made his hideout here. Unfortunately in one of Salvador's attempts to de-mask him Salvador had dug a tunnel from the basement of the HQ where he and the others slept to Zer0's cave. Salvador neglected the fact they were flying so his plan didn't turn out to well, but Zer0 managed to re purpose them into a few passage ways around

Sanctuary and one into the HQ in case there was something urgent happening. Zer0 had a few other bits and bobs around his "room" like Captain Scarlet's pistol and Handsome Jacks mask. The most important thing in Zer0s room was the decrepit sniper rifle hung on the wall above a workbench full of parts. Zer0's precious Atlas Thunder had been damaged when he first got to Pandora but he hadn't had time to fix it since, once he killed Jack however he had lots of free time and was almost finished. But all of the fun and games were over now. He had not heard of c0rruption for a long time now and if this was surfacing on Pandora... He shuddered to think what other monstrosities from the past would make their way to Pandora. He needed to clean up this c0rruption mess and move on. He was already to emotionally attached to his teammates and couldn't stand it. " I am a cold heartless assassin." He told himself "Emotions cause irrationality and that leads to death." He looked down to his Echo device and ripped it off. He began de-programming it of all his information and trying to leave it blank. When he left he wanted no one to be able to follow him, especially anybody from this team. They knew him as a socially distant assassin with a a heart of gold but he was no hero, he was an opportunist and while many of the people of this planet looked up to him once he left it was back to killing people for cash. He hated it and wished that he could stay here and be a hero forever but fate would not let him, he was made to kill. Every day he had to fight his instinct to hurt his teammates and if he hurt any of them... he didn't know what. He had never felt this way about anybody, epically the way he felt about Maya. She was kind and beautiful and- "No" Zer0 said. If he stayed around her he would hurt her or kill her and if he did... Zer0 heard the telltale creaking of somebody coming down the ladder to his room, dropped his echo and quickly re-attached his faceplate and leaped into the shadows.

"Zer0! Are you down here?" Maya yelled coming down the ladder searching the area "Zer0!"

Zer0 coughed slightly and stood up fully, unfortunately for Maya she was looking the other way when Zer0 coughed and Maya screamed and nearly jumped out of her skin. "Jeez Zer0! That was one hell of a surprise" she said staring to giggle " but I think that I should be used to it by now. The ole' mountain man sent me down here to make sure you were OK. Are you?" Zer0 stared back and contemplated telling her and the rest of the team about his history with the c0rruption program, Zer0 opened his mouth to say something (not that anyone could tell) but closed it quickly not wanting to interrupt her blissful ignorance. He responded a few seconds later with " You should not worry, I am always going to be, In good condition"

"Zer0... sometimes you worry me. You seem so cold and distant... Why won't you ever open up to any of us? We're all your friends and now that Jack is dead you don't need to hide anymore. " Maya babbled moving closer to Zer0

Zer0 turned his visor to face Maya "Because feelings are, irrelevant they only, cause death for others"

Maya responded in a soft voice with "Zer0 what happened earlier today... I thought you died in Dr. Zed's office. I was sooooo worried because well... Wow! I never thought it would be this hard to say" Maya said walking away quickly and running her fingers through her hair " But I need to say it!" Maya suddenly decided "Zer0 I really like you... and I want to be with you." Maya said determinedly as she walked up within an inch of Zer0 and splayed her fingers across Zer0's chest. Zer0 recoiled at Maya's touch and backed up a few steps, Maya's giddy smile turned into a tearful face as watched Zer0 recoil.

"Maya I mean you, no dishonor but I think, we should just be friends."Zer0 said in a cold monotone offering his hand towards Maya.

"No, No Zer0" Maya stuttered trying to hold back her tears as she turned away " As usual your actions were swift and-" Maya began so sniffle as she wiped tears away "-decisive" Maya fell to her knees and began to hold her head in her hands. Zer0 stood there for a moment searching for words to comfort his hurt friend but couldn't find anything, so he did what he always did when situations got risky and left. As Maya lay in dank darkness of the room and looked around to see if Zer0 was still here. She didn't see Zer0 but did notice an echo lying on the ground. "He broke something of mine... I'll break something of his." she decided pulling out a knife and starting to stab at Zer0's echo device. Unfortunately it was made of unobtanium and almost indestructible. "Dammit" Maya sobbed putting the echo in her pocket and crept slowly up the ladder hoping no one would notice the tears in her eyes.

* * *

"And that is all the info we have on Kain"finished Brick "So now that we are all on the same page I think we need to divide into teams to get a few jobs done to prepare to fight him, Moxxi, Zed, Hammerlock, and Scooter, you all need to talk to some of your contacts and get us info on where Kain;s hanging' out. Salvador, you take Zer0 and make sure Kain hasn't attacked Overlook or Lairs Burg, Axton you get Maya and help out Tannis with finding Claptrap parts, CL4TP units are immune to the c0rruption and Tannis is gonna find out why."

"What about me asshat!" demanded Gaige

" You and me are gonna pay a visit to Opportunity" Brick responded menacingly. "but first why don't we celebrate fending off another invasion with a few drinks!" Brick roared jovially

"YAA" Almost everybody in the room responded and Moxxi quickly scurried back to her bar to get everything ready.

As everybody was working their way down the street in ones and twos towards Moxxi's bar Salvador realized he forgot about bringing Zer0. Normally he was the last person you would want at a celebration but Salvador needed to ask him a few questions. He thought that since they had both been exposed to the same eridium blast he had. If Salvador got his new gunzerking ability from the splash damage imagine what Zer0 had gotten, he was hit directly with it. As Salvador walked down the hallway near the back of the HQ he heard crying coming from one of the rooms. Salvador, astonished to find that was coming from Maya's room opened the door and said "Ese' Maya! Whats wrong?" In a voice as sensitive as Salvador could muster.

Maya looked at him and said "Why do you care? You've never been one to care about feelings Sal!

Salvador responded with "Maya, I figured if Brick could be civil and comprehensive today... Well I could probably give a shut about your well being."

Maya smiled and said " Even though you don't care Sal, it makes me feel better that you pretended to, thanks."

"So are you coming down to the bar?"inquired Salvador

"No thanks Sal, I'll stay in for tonight" responded Maya. As Salvador nodded and walked down to the bar hoping Zer0 was already there Maya began fiddling with Zer0's echo. "Let's see what he has to hide!" Maya said maliciously...

* * *

"So Brick" Axton inquired running up next to him "What sparked this sudden increase in rationality?"

Brick looked at Axton and slowed to even their pace "I'm a berzerker and in my heyday I would die maybe two, three times a battle but when Roland died and didn't come back... I don't know why the New-U station didn't work but I don't plan on dying yet."

"The New-U stations still work for me, I don't think I need to be worried."

"But how can you know? Roland sure as hell didn't."

I'm lucky alright, I know that if I trust my gut I'll come out on the other side alright. That's the same strategy I used I the army."

"And look how well that turned out"

"Fuck you Brick"

When Brick and Axton finally made it to Moxxi's the party was already under way. Lilith Mordecai and Moxxi were all talking at the bar, Hammerlock motioned to talk to Axton and Salvador, Brick and Gaige began playing darts with their knives. The only people unaccounted for were Zer0 and Maya, and both ere thinking hard about the previous day.

* * *

"I can't believe this!" Maya fumed " After all this time I spent helping that asshole! For him to just brush me off like that! He didn't even stop talking in haiku!Highhanded!" Maya threw Zer0's echo across the room and lay down on her bed. "This is unacceptable. I will not, no, can not let him get away with this. The only problem is that I still really like him, I need some advice, any suggestions"

Maya looked at the rooms other occupant quizzically "Well, uh , little miss, I, uh, don't know if I can help you on this" said Dr. Zed awkwardly " What information on him do you think I have?"

"You preformed surgery on him earlier today didn't you? What did you see?"

"Maya, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but I didn't do anything. As soon as I got my tools set up that sum-bitch was outta the operating chair and fighting a robot. I don't know exactly what he did but when he raised his hand to that thing it just exploded into flames. He was potentially exposed to enough eriduim to make him the equivalent of a siren, although that is a bit more of Tannis' territory."

"Can you help me get into his echo?"

"Hey how'd you- never mind. I put it on a bio-lock so that it only opens when the correct DNA sequence is put in, you'll presumably need Zer0's."

"Thanks I guess, are you sure you don't know anything else?"

"Maya if I think of something I'll be sure to let you know. OK."

"Whatever Zed" Maya muttered in a sigh "but if you tell anyone about this!"

"You'll kill me yada yada yada, I get the same threats every day"

Maya began to walk down to Moxxi's hoping to find Zer0 and grab a DNA sample from, somewhere. Maybe his drink, or his armor, but Maya also needed a drink. She was very confused about how and why Zer0 did what he did and why she still felt something. It was probably jealousy she concluded as she walked into the bar. "Hey guys:" Maya said to the room and was greeted with groan of "Hello's" and "Hi's" from its patrons. Maya grabbed a seat next to Axton and across from Sir Hammerlock "Hey Axton"She said with a cheery smile "Would you grab me a drink? I'm exhausted."

"Sure, whatchu want?" Axton said doing his best Crazy Earl impression making Maya giggle.

"Thanks Axton, I really needed that."

"No problem Maya. Are you feeling OK?"

"Now I am" Maya said smiling, Axton smiled back and began to walk away when Maya had a devious thought. She wondered how Zer0 would react if she starting "hanging around" with Axton. It may be a small form of revenge and a bit awkward for her but if it made Zer0 jealous.

* * *

Zer0 sat on the roof of the fast travel station, mentally punching himself in the face. "Stupid stupid stupid" he thought "I was so focused on not hurting her physically I forgot about her mental state. I never realize what an asshole I am. This is why I don't interact with people, I kill them." Zer0 looked up to the sky and contemplated his next move "I need to leave" he thought "If I stay here I will only hurt this team more. Where should I go though? Look at all the planets... That I've already been to." His thoughts drifted to Maya "She is a siren Zer0, you should know that she's destined for another. You need to improve! You got sloppy! You got attached to a teammate and screwed everything up!" With this thought Zer0 for the most recent time in his life took his sword, his Atlas Thunder and his legend and disappeared.

* * *

A/N: So yeah... that's a bit more of a drama chapter which will be the meat of the story since my action writing is not the greatest. Also in case anyone was worried this is not the end of Zer0. He will have his place in the story and also gets and odd sidekick. I want to see if anybody can guess who it will be, and the first person who does gets a shout out in my next chapter and get to like, I don't know name an OC.

Please R&R

Adios Mustachios!


	3. Chapter 3

C0unting Zer0's

Episode 1 Chapter 3

A/N: Alright Chapter 3! I honestly thought I would lose interest in this project far earlier but kudos to all of you readers and reviewers who made me jeep coming back. This probably isn't my best chapter but it is a necessary one, next time there will be some big(ish) plot reveals so bear with me. Also Zer0 wasn't featured as much as I wanted in this chapter but the next one will be mostly him.

**Mmo100**: It won't stop completely but I want to make the serious tone more promising.

**athos-aramis**: Thank you for another in depth review and I am gonna go back and fix all of the things you pointed out once I finish up episode 1.

* * *

Blake sat on the porch of his home in the New Headlands, slowly swinging on his porch swing watching his children play in the yard. Blake was out of his usual attire and instead of his usual formal suit he wore a faded Hawaiian T-shirt and a pair of khaki's. His two eight year old children played in the front yard with the swing set they had built the previous summer. He loved how the Headlands had become settled and people could live in an actual community instead of fearing a bandit raid every fifteen minutes. Of course there were still lots of troops around to make sure nothing bad happened and there was a huge wall under construction between the New Headlands and the wreckage of New Haven, a few bandits had started setting up camp and Blake didn't want to provoke a conflict. He was pulled out of his contemplation by a tap on his left shoulder "Yes hone- Agh!" Blake said falling out of his chair

"Hello Blake, we have a problem"

"T-T-Ten!" Blake stuttered fumbling to get up from the floor "How did you find me?"

"You are not a hard man to track Blake"

"You should leave, now. I don't need my children seeing you."

"Blake , scaring your children is not on my to do list, but we have an emergency."

Blake finally managed to stand up and stomped inside "Ten contacting me at my work is different but you are here at my home, scaring my family, Ten you may think you are important but this is where I draw the line. You are never supposed to meet an employers children" Blake popped open a bottle of beer and began to drink it.

"You have solid argument but forget the clause that I also have no desire to meet your family. I would not have contacted you at your place of residence if this matter was not of the utmost importance."

"What is so important Ten!"

"My brothers have heard of the struggle and are coming to Pandora"

"Didn't you say that they were on our side?"

"Unfortunately not all of my brothers are as enlightened as we are in this matter."

"So there's gonna be more of you running around Pandora? Goddammit." Said Blake sounding tired, he looked at his now empty beer bottle and said one of the wisest things that he had in a long time "I think I'm gonna need another beer."

* * *

Maya woke up with her hair sticking straight up "Jeez... What a night" she said crawling out of bed and looking around her room. Her room was in chaos and disorder as usual but something felt odd and she couldn't quite pinpoint it. "Salvador's snoring!" She said aloud snapping her fingers. She wandered towards Salvador's room after getting herself in cleaned up from her binge last night and putting some respectable clothes rather than her pajamas. Although she was the only girl on a team of "Manly Men" they all liked to pick on her for wearing them, especially Salvador. His taunting was pretty annoying until Maya managed to stop it by figuring out that Salvador still slept with his teddy bear Osolito. "Sal! Sal! Are you here?" Maya wandered down the hallway calling the others names "Axton! Sal! Lilith! Where is everybody? Brick! Mordecai! Zer0!..." Maya looked through the a few other rooms before heading upstairs. While this wasn't a terrifying experience it was a bit odd, Maya was usually the first person to get up in the morning. On top of this she honestly couldn't remember much of what happened last night, the last thing she could remember was Axton giving her drink after drink at Moxxi's last night, the pig. Maya really didn't think that he was an... attractive person but she needed to bear with her plan, she knew it was gonna work. "Tannis, have you seen anybody recently?" she said as she reached the top of the stairs. When Maya looked up she saw Axton, Salvador, and Lilith all loading up their guns and equipment. "Ummm, guys did I miss something?"

"No Maya" said Lilith "Axton said you had a rough night last night and needed some rest. We were gearing up to grab some Claptrap parts for Tannis, she had an ingenious idea to run digistruct modules through them so Kain can't hack them. The problem is that we can't discern what part we need so Tannis is gonna have to tear apart our Claptrap here.

Maya looked at Axton with a sly smile and one eyebrow raised "Really Axton" she said walking towards him "Did you think that I wanted to miss out on this mission? Miss out on a chance to smack down some of Kain's robots and rip apart some Claptraps? I don't think so buddy boy" she said smiling and patting Axton on the back. She snatched up one of Lilith's spare SMG's from a pile of guns on the table and began to load it, saying "So how much firepower are we bringing?"

"Only as much as you can carry." said Lilith "All digistruct modules need to be turned off now, and kept under lock and key. We don't want Kain getting into Sanctuary again so I'm cracking down, I even had to shut down Marcus' vendors."

"Well he must be happy." said Salvador sarcastically "But what I need to know is where my hombre Zer0 is. He isn't anywhere in his cave or the HQ. I even looked all over Sanctuary and couldn't find him. Unless he got hammered at the bar last night and fell off the edge I have no idea where he could be."

"Searching for Zer0 has never been the biggest success anyway Salvador, and if you really need help I'll come along." Lilith said.

Salvador smirked and said "It's OK I don't think I'll need much backup on this one. This is just a checkup on Overlook and Lair's Burg right?

"That's right Sal, just a routine checkup."

"Then I think I'll be on my way now. Adios, and don't kill Kain without me!" Salvador said as he exited the room slowly on his stubby legs an headed towards the Fast Travel station.

"I'm gonna go buy some Insta-Health's in case we run into trouble, so Maya would you mind grabbing the parts list from Tannis?" Axton said

"Sure thing" said Maya putting on nice smile after remembering her plan from last night. Some alone time with Axton would be the perfect time to set it in motion, and when Zer0 got back and saw Axton's arm around her... What she wouldn't pay to see the reaction on his face! Or his face at all really, why couldn't she stop thinking about him... Zer0 already rejected her she shouldn't care anymore! Sometimes Maya wished she stilled lived among monks because other people were so frustrating.

* * *

Zer0 had been driving for hours, the dust and sand his speeder kicked up had worked their way into every crack and crevice of his suit. Thankfully the suit was airtight so it really didn't cause much harm but it was very irritating. "This is the first time I have ever contemplated putting windshield wipers on my helmet" Zer0 thought using his forearm to wipe away another layer of dust. Suddenly his runner started to make a whooping sound veer to the left. Zer0's quick reflexes made sure this posed no threat as he was able to right himself without much effort. "Sound like the steering column." Zer0 thought "I must pull over to make necessary repairs" Fortunately he was near Ellie's garage at the time and was able to make his runner limp its way there. Zer0 hopped out of the drivers seat and walked over towards Ellie's Garage. He poked his head in the main garage to see if she was in but Ellie's garage was desolate. Zer0 needed to stop to make some minor repairs to his vehicle after damage done by hitting skags, he didn't normally do it but taking a drive without somebody blabbing in his echo had been odd. At first he found it relaxing but over time the lack of noise had left him feeling lonely. This was not a feeling he had haven in a while but it was soon snuffed out. Maybe one day he could settle down but it was far off. Zer0 approached a crate full of replacement parts he had stashed in he back of his runner along with food, water, and ammo he had picked up from one of his bug-out bags. As he pulled the old Atlas crate of the back of his runner he was met to an odd surprise, Claptrap!

"Ah Ha! Thank you for transporting me minion!" the annoying little robot said "You have assisted me in my grand escape plan to flee from the evil Patricia Tannis who wanted to make Claptrap stew out of me!"

Zer0 looked at the robot for a few long seconds before breaking sight and turned to rifle through what few parts Claptrap had left in the box after making room for himself. "Claptrap what happened, to the parts in my runner, they are important."

"Ohh those! I ingeniously hid them all over the floor of your cave to make room for my daring escape."

Zer0 mentally let out a sigh of relief and relaxed his shoulders as he found the part he required to fix his runner. While he was running repairs and listening to Claptrap babble endlessly about his plan to finally escape Pandora, Zer0 contemplated what had made Claptrap immune to the c0rruption. He theorized that the pre-Handsome Jack Hyperion was interested in the quality rather than quantity of robots; therefore, Claptrap had been pre-programmed with anti virus software that reacted against c0rruption. The rest of the broken Claptrap's in the igloo near Lairs Burg where Claptrap lived would have this software on them so Maya and Axton wouldn't be in too much danger. Zer0 finished his repairs and hopped in the runner revving the engine and enjoying the sound it made. In a past life Zer0 could have probably been a mechanic, he loved making things work properly but never got around to really studying it. He had always been preoccupied with murder. And being a bad-ass. He had a rough childhood. Zer0 looked over at Claptrap staring at him from the side of the road.

"Zer0 are you gonna let me on, minion you need to help me you know I'm not tall enough!" Zer0 stared at the annoying little robot and wondered if he should let the poor old machine onto his runner, it was the last one of its kind and he could feel something close to sympathy for that.

"You're not going to let me on, are you?" The robot asked looking as crestfallen as a two and a half foot tall robot could. Zer0 looked at Claptrap for a few more seconds averted his eyes and drove off without him, spraying dust in his eye. He didn't even look back.

* * *

"Ha! And to think I used to feel threatened by those bullymongs" Maya announced laughing and blowing another away with a spray of bullets from her SMG.

"Holy crap Maya" said Axton "when did you get so bloodthirsty?"

"Maybe this is just the side of me you just don't know yet" Maya said running ahead.

"Well I think I want to know" Axton said reaching for his echo " Hey Sal, you there?" he asked into his transmitter.

"Ya man que pasa?"

"I was wondering if you had dibs on Maya 'cause she's really growing on me."

"No man but I think she might have something going on with Zer0."

"How so?"

"Well she's always nearby when Zer0 is doing well... Zer0 stuff like using his sword r at the firing range. She also only plays poker with me when Zer0 plays to. I don't know why because the Z man always wins."

"I hope your joking man because that sure as hell ain't dibs, and isn't Zer0 like a robot or something? I hope he is because that sonofabitch kills people so coldly that he is either a robot or as sociopath."

"Calm down hombre'! I just was filling you in, no need to get defensive."

"Ya whatever Sal. Catch you later." said Axton hanging up the echo.

"Hurry up would you!" Maya yelled back "Or I won't leave any for you."

Axton smiled devilishly as he slicked down his hair and moved towards Maya "I don't think so" he said moving towards Maya as she was struggling to open the back door to Claptrap's house.

"Axton get over here the door is stuck."

"So you need a big strong man to open the door for you?"

Maya blew a piece of her blue hair out of her eyes and gave Axton stared at him in disbelief. "Big strong man? Step aside Axton." said Maya as she stood up and walked a few feet away from the partitioned metal door. She took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders as she raised her left hand and the tattoos on it began to glow blue, her eyes also began to glow blue. A blue sphere of energy grew to around 3 feet in size in her hand before she flexed her arm and the sphere flew forward and hit the door. The sphere drove into the center of the door and pushed against it causing it to fold in on itself and fly across the room, being pushed up onto the wall on the other side of the room. "Still feel so bug and strong?" Maya teased waltzing her way into the room. Axton rubbed the dumb look out of his eyes and walked into Claptrap's house after Maya.

"You know Axton" Maya said starting to round a corner " I'm much more capable than you give me credit for. I mean I am a siren, I think I can handle myself. I have been on Pandora for- Oof!" Maya said as Axton tackled her to the ground. "Axton..." Maya giggled "What are you doing? This is so sudden!"

Axton's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at Maya "What are you talking about? I thought I heard some voices in the other room. I'm gonna go check, you watch my back here."

"Excuse me? Does it look like I care about a few bandits in Claptrap's old house?" Maya said pushing Axton off as she got up "I'm a pretty big girl Axton so I don't think I need you protecting me."

"Wait! Don't go in there yet!" Axton yelled, scrambling to get up off the slippery, icy floor "Maya Let me!"

Maya disregarded all of his warnings all of his warnings, simply looking back and saying "Aw little baby Axton wants to go in first? To bad." She turned the corner of the icy hallway into a huge domed igloo made of large bricks of ice and deactivated Claptrap's with a small poker table located in the center of the room with an old battery powered walky-talky with pink flowers painted all over it. Maya hesitantly walked over towards it and picked it up. "Hello?" Maya asked "Hello? Is anybody there?"

"Surprise bitch!" Said a voice over the radio with a slight truxican accent as all of the windows and the two doors of the igloo slammed shut. "No!" Yelled Maya running towards the door she had entered the room from, it was now covered in a thick metal grille as well as a blast shield behind that "Axton can you hear me!"

"Nope he can't hear you. No one can here you. No friends are near. Only Kain is here. Now lets talk."

Axton was furious "What the hell are you doing!" He yelled at a lanky truxican getting out of a runner."You wanted Zer0! This is Maya! Let her out!"

"Honestly ese', I don't care." Said a tall lanky truxican with dreadlocks " Kain is getting paid per vault hunter, so even if this... whoever, isn't Zer0 its still a paycheck" The Truxican went over to the Bandit Technical he and his two men he brought and opened the trunk. He pulled out a large bazooka and stuffed a few rockets in the nozzle "Ohohoho! Kain likes this!" The Truxican known as Kain looked very, odd, to be on Pandora. Most bandit leaders were decked out in body armor and spoke in threatening catchphrases; however, Kain wore a faded green tank top with unintelligible yellow print on the front and the numeral 1 on the back along with the Truxican flag. He also wore faded blue jeans with several rips and tears around the knee and shin area. His head by far had to be the oddest part of his getup however, he wore a pair of sunglasses with a small satellite dish attached and a cross hair embedded into both the lenses. His hair was a rat's nest of dreadlocks and had several small bits of metal in them along with a few hanging from his longer dreadlocks that had blood dried onto it. "They're called Deadlocks" he would joke " you know, 'cause I kill people wit' 'em". He spoke in rapid ,accented Spanglish and unlike many people on Pandora relished his insanity. He was famous in the far west of Pandora for being the self proclaimed "King of Psychos".

"Come on Kain" Axton pleaded "Just let her out, we can cut a new deal"

"Now now Axton, no taksies backsies woth Kain. Its time for me to have some fun." Kain said with relish, he slung the rocket launcher on his back and pulled out a wickedly curved and serrated sickle. "You wanna know my favorite part of the kill?"

"Not really Kain, lets just talk this over."

"Nonononono!" Kain yelled grabbing Axton by his neck and pinning him against one of the icy walls with a mad fire in his eyes. "You want to hear my favorite part. Its the screaming. The lats moans of a dying creature or the high shrill yells our damsel in their will probably make. It tells their whole life story in a few, short agonizing seconds. And you know, I am "Dying" to get to know your pretty little girlfriend."

"I will do anything" Axton choked out trying to struggle free of Kain's iron like grip

"Do you know the Sanctuary central access code?"

"No?" Axton said confused

Kain dropped Axton and turned to his two thugs "Get ready to blow the place boys"

"Wait wait wait! I know someone who could get you access! Tannis! Dr. Patrica Tannis!"

"Ha hah ha! I knew you'd come around!" Kain yelled giving Axton a noogie "You just have to transmit them in forty eight hours and Maya find's this ordeal over. Simple enough eh ese'?"

"If you hurt her"

" You'll kill me I know I know, now get a move on soldier you're losing time already."

"Just let me-"

" One, two, three, four,"

"You aren't gonna count for the whole time are you?"

"Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten."

* * *

Zer0 was laying down on a ridge east of Lynchwood looking at an old wooden shanty on the outskirts of town. Right now there were three bandits and a Bad-ass Psycho outside. Zer0 set up the bi-pod on his sniper rifle and looker down the scope, Three head shots would deal with the bandits but the bad-ass would be, a challenge. Thank goodness something on this trip would challenge him.

"So what are you looking at minion?" said an annoyingly cheerful voice. Zer0 waved Claptrap away and wondered again why he drove back to Ellie's garage to pick him up. Maybe it was because he could be useful in some way, or that, Zer0 owed him from Lairs Burg back when he had just arrived, or maybe just some kind of misplaced pity. Either way he had saved that annoying robot and driven another thirty miles without killing the thing, he truly was the master of controlling emotions. Zer0 looked down the scope again and sighted in on the first bandit, took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger. He used the kick from his first shot to sight in on the second and fired a bullet slightly of course piercing the second bandits neck, he then fell over against the wall of the shanty coughing blood every where. The third bandit took cover behind a rock while the psycho charged him. He fired three shots at hitting the thing twice in the chest and once in the right leg. Zer0 then slung the rifle onto his back and threw a kunai into the psycho's head. The psycho staggered a few more steps and collapsed leaving only the third bandit.

"You shall stand and fight, You must protect your honor, Or die trying punk."

The third bandit rushed Zer0 screaming and spraying bullets everywhere with no strategy so Zer0 took pity in the fool and sent him to the afterlife with a quick slash to the jugular. Zer0 then turned to face the wooden shanty he had painted with the bandits blood. It was a strange hobby of Zer0's to analyze the blood splatter his shots made. He thought of it as feedback from his gun as to improve his shot. The first shot was clean but the second bandit was was wearing shoes with slightly thinker soles than he had estimated, this is what caused it to go awry. "I must not make that mistake again" thought Zer0 as he turned to enter the door of the lopsided wooden shanty, fifty feet away from the town but with a fine beaten path to the door. Whoever lived here was an artisan, but Zer0 already knew who the resident was, it was the only person in all of the galaxy who could have sold c0rruption to Kain, the only man who had ever survived a straight fight with Zer0, one of the few who knew about his past. It was also his youngest brother.

* * *

A/N: What a cliffhanger! I will definitely have another chapter up in 1 week but I may post earlier due to Christmas vacation. Do you guys and gals want a stricter upload schedule or just put them on when I finish?

Please R&R

Adios Mustachios!


	4. Chapter 4

C0unting Zer0's

Episode 1 Chapter 4

A/N: Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody who reads my story. As my Christmas present to all of you amazing reviewers! ( Cough* athos-aramis Cough*) This chapter is probably my favorite written so far and the second to last in this episode. It focuses mainly on Zer0 and leads up to the finale that's coming sometime next week. Please enjoy.

* * *

Blake sat in his office looking at a video feed on his computer. It was a real time broadcast from a godforsaken igloo near Liar's Burg. Inside there was one of the vault hunters he was looking for. It was kind of pathetic really, she was just wandering around yelling for help, she tried to break through the blast doors a few times but soon realized her attempts would be fruitless. As Blake was watching her wander around he realized something, he realized that he didn't care that he had trapped one of the infamous vault hunters, his ambitions and goals had been twisted by this Ten character and he had lost all revenue for this quarter to this. "This is unacceptable" Blake muttered to himself.

"Yes, it is" said a smooth metallic voice from behind him.

Blake stumbled a few steps but didn't fall down, partially used to Ten appearing behind him "Ten we need to have a talk." Blake accused.

"Yes we do" Ten said marching forward and picking up Blake by the neck "You are a fool, you have given me money, weapons, spaceships, and an army. You have made your self irrelevant."

"Ten put me down! You work for me!"

"Do I? You have given me everything I asked for, you were an endless amount of funds to try and catch four people. So tell me honestly, why do you think I want to kill the vault hunters?"

"You want money and power, like any other mercenary. I can supply that."

"Blake do I look like any other mercenary? I am here for one thing and I guarantee that it is not money, nor power. I am here for revenge."

"Against who exactly? Me? Jack? The vault hunters? Revenge isn't a new concept here on Pandora and just because you wear a mask doesn't mean that everyone is intimidated by you. Ten you overestimate yourself" Blake choked out "Now let me go."

Ten relaxed hi grip and dropped Blake onto his feet "I know that the populace of Pandora won't be intimidated by a simple mask, which is why I'm going to do this." Ten said holding his hand out as a huge black battleaxe with glowing blue blades on it.

"You're gonna kill me Ten. After all I gave you? Well go ahead, I can't say I wasn't expecting this. But if you expect me to offer you money or power, or beg for my life... Well best of luck to you because that isn't gonna happen."

"I am not going to kill you Blake." Ten said as Blake let out a huge sigh "My associate Four is." Ten said as he pulled out a digistruct device and pushed a large red button on it. "Blake" Ten said as a tall thin being with four arms and black and white body armor similar to Tens but with two more arms and quite a bit thinner and smaller. "Meet my brother, Four. Four why don't you saw hello to Mr. Blake" As Four advanced on Blake, and Blake began screaming and begging for his life, Ten averted his eyes. Although he thought violence was a necessary tool in his plan he did not relish using it like some of his more primal brothers. Four for example was a master of unarmed combat but was defined as inferior to Ten because of his questionable mental condition. Ten stared out the window of Blakes office as a haze of Blake's blood filled the room "Four, when you are done get rid of the body, we don't need Blake turning up dead just yet." A feral grunting sound came from for which Ten took as confirmation, Four was quite skilled at disposal and before the team they were on was broken up that had been hi job. "And after that I have a special mission for you." Ten said as four turned away from the mangled pile of flesh and designer suit that used to be Blake, "I have a location on our... friend, he is in Lynchwood and I need you to go and track him down and deal with the situation h has created."

Four turned his head and let out a garbled an guttural string of noises to which Ten responded "Yes Four, you do get to kill Zer0."

* * *

Maya leaned her head against the wall, she was frustrated, with Axton, with Kain, with Zer0, with goddamn everybody! It was so like the perverted bandits to try and capture a girl to be a damsel in distress, she wasn't even the weakest member of the group! She was an all powerful siren and the bandit hordes should fear her! "But I am still stuck in this cage!" she yelled slumping onto the floor "Damn You Kain!" Maya yelled hurl phase energy at the wall causing several dents in the grate's that fell over the windows but only bounced off the blast shield covering the door.

"Why on earth would you say that about me Maya?" said a heavily sarcastic voice over the walky-talky Maya had stung on her belt

"Kain why are you doing this?"

"Having a civil conversation with you mi hija, well I'm doing it because I like you. I find your conversation stimulating an engaging. Hahahaaha... Oh that was a good one. Oye! Shut up Jenkins! I'm on the telefono, show some respect!"

"No Kain, why are you attacking us? What did we ever do to you?"

"Maya mi amiga I am simply here to kill you and all your friends, there is no grudge here it's just how I make my living. However I have always wanted to cut open a siren, this does seem like an ample opportunity. How do you feel about this Maya?"

"You are a sick man Kain I hope you know that?

Kain stated laughing over the walky-talky "I know that Maya, but nobody on Pandora can help me, I realized a long time ago that I was beyond help and my best course of action was to wallow in my insanity and make the most of it."

"Kain if you expect me to have pity on you for that..."

"Pity Maya? I thought you knew me better. I pity you, you live your life trying to be the hero and win the admiration of the masses. The people of this universe are rotten and fickle Maya as your compadre Zer0 knows all to well. You could have been a savior of all of the known universe but as soon as you mes up once... Well you turn out like Zer0."

"What do you mean? What do you know about Zer0?"

"Maya, as much as I am bursting at the seams to spoil his secrets to you, I can't. Even though I was hired to brutally murder him and all his friends, I respect him to much to sell out his secrets. See once upon a time me and Zer0 were on a, uh, task force together and we were close friends, close enough to be brothers and he saved my life several times so I think I owe him not spoiling his secrets."

"He saved your life didn't he? So why try to kill him now, you said yourself you owe him?"

"Maya I fully expect to lose if it comes to a fight between me and Zer0. I am hoping that he abandons you and leaves this planet so I don't have to fight him."

"What the hell! Let me get this straight, you don't want to fight the man want to murder?"

"I do not want to murder Zer0, Maya. I may be crazy but I am not insane. I am forced to do this by an old debt I owe. Honestly I don't even want to kill you, and it's hard to want to kill Salvador being a fellow Truxican. That Axton fellow is a bit annoying but he is a smart one and I don't think he deserves to die either, yet. Zer0 however... he is of a different breed than all of you, you are not children but you are all innocent compared to him he his a murderer beyond all murderers. You've killed legions of bandits and loaders but he has done things far worse... Maya you should get out well you can Zer0 is a dangerous person to be around, I mean look what he already got you into!"

"Kain why are you trying to kill Zer0 and the rest of us if you two used to be friends, or brother, or whatever?"

"Because times change."

* * *

Zer0 cautiously approached the wooden shack he had just cleared, he was confused as to why bandits were surrounding it, his brother was never one to be bullied and if bandits were harassing him he would have either killed them or gotten himself killed. "Three! Three! Are you here?" Zer0 yelled as he entered the wooden shanty "Your new home is a, bit less, than expected Three.

"The neighborhood is little rougher than expected Zer0" Said a small stocky man getting up from a pile of broken chairs he wore a suit similar to Zer0's but the helmet and faceplate were missing revealing a round Caucasian fave with sandy blond hair, the gauntlets on the suit were also very bulky and had various skeletal robotic arms and tools embedded in it "I had a bit of a run in with bandits recently and they got me pretty good." he said gesturing at a bullet hole in his leg that was slowly draining away crimson blood, "But what prompted you to visit me after all these years? I've been on Pandora for two and a half years now but you never checked up on me.'

"We agreed to not meet because it would attract to much attention."

"So the only question that remains Zer0,is why are you here now?"

"I was exposed to, a dangerous amount of, raw eridium. I have been showing strange symptoms for many days, diagnose me Three."

"All you need to do is ask Zer0, and stop talking in those freakin' Haiku's. It makes it hard to communicate and it's not like I've never heard you talk normal before."

"Fine Three"

"Alright Zer0 so what symptoms have you noticed?"

"Increased energy and muscle mass as well as no consumption of food or water and no sleep for extended periods of time has no impact on my performance."

"Any pre-existing medical conditions I should know about?"

My body has continued to stay at sub-zero temperature's and my organs begin to fail with even limited exposure to warmer temperature's."

"Even after all this time?"

"The condition has persisted even after we escaped captivity and all power to secondary functions had to be diverted to keep my suit's interior sub-zero."

"Well Zer0 I am gonna have to open up your suit to see if any physical damage was done."

"Very well."Zer0 said opening a port on the side of his helmet "Put me under"

"Good night Zer0"

Zer0's suit came back online before the anesthesia had wore off and delivered a small electric shock to Zer0's temple waking him up. As his eyes fluttered open he was not bound or surrounded the way he usually was when waking up from unconsciousness and it felt nice. "This must be what normal surgeries feel like." Zer0 reasoned. He sat up from his lying position and felt a slight pain in his chest, a robotic voice in his helmet beeped and said "Auto-Doc initiated, delivering painkillers to abdominal region." Zer0 felt a slight sting into his abdomen and the pain faded away. "Three! What the hell did you do to my suit!" Zer0 yelled swearing for the first time in many many years. Normally Zer0 was very great full to somebody who had just given him free surgery but when that person also messed with the suit that had kept him alive for his whole life... There would be hell to pay! "Three! I am gonna-"

"Calm down Zer0, I did you a favor, I managed to engage your suits secondary functions."

"That was a mistake Three" Zer0 said standing up "My cooling system doesn't have enough power now and I will overheat and die."

"Aha Zer0 but this is my trump card! Your body is now producing vast amounts of power. Enough to power all of your suits functions for an undefined amount of time, it could be infinite! You became supercharged by that blast and became saturated with eridium. Being, well, what you are you absorbed that shit like a siren and well, tada! You have access to everything even your secondary weapon."

"Secondary weapon?"

"Ya you have a secondary digistruct weapon built into the suit, judging by the software files I found it's a highly sophisticated reflex bow. You can activate it by grabbing the air with your left hand."

Zer0 cautiously reached forward with his left hand and grasped the air, surprisingly a smooth curve bow materialized with a blue string of energy where the draw sting on a normal bow would be. "Badass" said Zer0 inspecting the weapon "But it will be inefficient to use I have no training with this weapon and its primitive firing mechanism will hinder my range and force."

"Fortunately for you Zer0 someone who worked for Atlas had half a brain. The range and force are less so than a high end gun but the kinetic energy barrier makes sure that it can out shoot most sniper rifles, the bow also came with built in targeting assist so it should help you out until you feel confident enough to turn it off. The best part of the bow is that each shot is completely silent and you can digistruct arrows by reaching back to grasp them, I really don't know what types of arrows you can create so have fun experimenting with them."

"Three... Why would you do all this for me?"

"This makes us even." said Three turning away from Zer0 guilt in his eyes.

"We are even for what Three" accused Zer0 standing up and storing his bow.

"I may have had the c0rruption stolen from me" said Three wincing.

"I already knew that, Kain stole them, correct?"

"No, Zer0 I'm so sorry but one of our brothers came by... Ten is on Pandora Zer0, and he has c0rruption."

* * *

Axton was freaking out. Kain wanted central access... whatever and he had no idea where to find it! Tannis was locked in her workshop Lilith wouldn't give them to him Zed was preforming some sort of surgery. "I need a drink." decided Axton after running around sanctuary for the past couple hours like a chicken with his head cut off. Axton walked into the looking around and noticed that even at three in the afternoon Moxxi's bar was still full of customers. "Moxxi!" Axton yelled sitting down at the bar "Get me a rakk ale!"

"At three in the afternoon sugar?" Moxxi said waltzing her way up to the bar "Whats got you down?"

"Nothing Moxxi just get me the drink."

"Hombre, don't lie to us!" said Salvador said walking up to the bar and jumping onto a seat "If something went down in Lair's Burg the you've gotta tell us."

"Fine Sal, I was checking out Claptrap's igloo and Kain sprung a trap on us, he caught Maya but I managed to escape, he wanted some sort of access code and he'd let her go, but I can't find it anywhere."

Salvador turned and looked at Axton in the eyes said "Screw you!" and delivered a swift right hook to knock him off the chair "You never make a deal with a bandit! And you never leave someone behind! What were you freaking thinking?"

"I was thinking I couldn't kill three bandits who were flanking me all on my own!"

"Grab your gun Axton we're going back."

"What?"

"Well since Zer0 isn't here anymore to pull our asses out of the fire so I'm gonna take charge and go rescue Maya! Go get Brick while I get some ammo."

* * *

Zer0 stood up and was running diagnostics on his suit, on top of all the things that Three rebooted small performance enhancers had also been activated.

"Okay Zer0 I found a shuttle to get us out of here. It's going to Eden-5, we simply need to leave Pandora and find Two."

"I think I'll miss this place, Pandora was good to me."

"Ya well, not so much to me Zer0, I think Promethia might be a good place to go next. Ten would have a hard time tracking us there."

"Three" Zer0 said looking out a window at the hot Pandoran sun "Have you ever contemplated fighting Ten, I think with with the Crimson Raiders at our back we might stand a chance."

"We also might die horribly and have Four eat our corpses. Not a chance I am willing to take. You also have Two to think about, if we die he is all alone against and even more powerful Ten." Said Three stuffing handfuls of tools into a suitcase.

Zer0 was preparing another argument for staying on Pandora when he heard a strange beeping noise from the north wall of Three's shanty "Three, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" asked Three packing up almost all of the tools and computers strewn around his room.

"It's like a strange beeping noise, it's coming from over here." Said Zer0 pressing his helmet against the wall. At the exact same moment his helmet touched the wall s huge explosion blasted the wall down and threw Zer0 like a rag doll across the room and right through the wall on the opposite side of the room.

"Hello Zer0" said a cold metallic voice "I'm sorry I couldn't be there to kill you personally but our brother Four wanted to do it so badly, and I hate to disappoint"said the voice as a figure emerged emerged from the dust caused by the explosion, the shadowy figured moved out of the dust and appeared to be wearing a suit of black and white body armor with the same design as the one Zer0 and Three were wearing, the only differences were that the suit had four arms and numeral four printed on the upper left chest where the Zer0 was on Zer0's chest. The shadowy figure slid open a piece of his faceplate to reveal a gray mouth full of pointed teeth with two huge mandibles, the mouth opened and the mandibles extended as it let out an extremely loud and vicious "Screeeeeeeee!" Four then charged at Three, picked him up with one hand jumped thirty feet and slammed him into the ground.

"Please Four don't do this!" Three yelled obviously terrified

"You sided with Zer0 and Two when this all began, you should have expected that there would be consequences." said Ten through a speaker on Four's helmet "No you must pay the price for betraying us Three" Ten said as Four lifted up his hand, claws began to digistruct on Four's hand and just as Four was about to deliver his killing blow to Three an arrow sprouted from his neck. A red blinking light on the arrow flashed rapidly a few times and after about two and a half seconds the arrow exploded sending Four careening off of Three's prone body. Four crashed into the ground five yards away immediately got up with no apparent physical damage. "Good shot Zer0, but will have no time to revel in that small victory. Four, sic 'em!" Ten said as Four sprinted at Zer0 and knocked him to the ground, Zer0's bow was knocked from his hand and disappeared as it hit the ground. "You know I never really appreciated how vicious for was until now. He has just informed me that as soon he is finished killing you he will kill Three, that little robot hiding in your runner and all your little vault hunter friends, Kain already has Maya trapped, I thought killing the infamous "Patient Zer0" and his band of merry vault hunters would be much more of a challenge than this." Ten bragged as Four lifted up his left hands again and digistructed huge claws around them. As Four was about to deliver the killing blow he heard a strange and unfamiliar war cry coming from Zer0's parked runner, a high pitched and irritating noise was screaming "Viva el Robolution!" Four's head exploded showering Zer0 with gray goo and sent the remainder of his body flying off to the left. Zer0 turned to look where the rocket had came from and saw Claptrap standing there with a now empty rocket launcher Claptrap yelled again, "Viva el Robolution!"

Three stood up and ran over to Zer0 "Come we have to go, now!" Three yelled helping Zer0 to his feet "The shuttle to Promethia leaves in two hours!"

"Three I'm staying."

"What! Zer0 if you stay here you are gonna die."

"And if I leave now the woman I love will die."

Three stared at Zer0 as if he had just committed sacrilege "You said yourself Zer0 that on Pandora we were not supposed to make any emotional connections or interact wit any Sirens. How did you let yourself fall in love with someone?"

"She is also a Siren."

Three's eyes looked like they were about to burst out of his head "You fell in love with a Siren! You know that you cannot have her Zer0 so why try! On that note Zer0 how many other Sirens have you been hanging out with? You have a goddamn pool party with them?"

"I met two others."

Three simply started to walk away at this statement "Zer0 I am leaving this planet, with or without you."

"Best of luck to you Three."

Best of luck to saving your girlfriend Zer0"

"My girlfriend, is it bad that I like that idea." Thought Zer0 heading back to his runner.

* * *

A/N: So the Tin Man had a heart after all! Awwwww! I even got claptrap to do something cool.

Thanks for reading it and stay tuned for the huge finale next week (Probably)

Please R&R

Adios mustachios!


	5. Chapter 5

C0unting Zer0's

Episode 1 Chapter 5

A/N: Here it is the final chapter of episode 1, thanks for everyone who has been with me this whole time or the people who have just joined. You all are amazing fans and if this is the last chapter it was a good ride.

PS. thank you so much MonsterJunkie who notified me that I had posted the wrong draft. It was very unprofessional and I apologize, it won't happen again.

* * *

Ten stood alone in a dark room, finally after years of searching he had found him, her, it... He had found Zer0. The one who had started it all, "So many years... Wasted on this pitiful thing. He will pay for all he has done."

"Ten honey" a sweet voice said as a door opened and let in a few rays of light "We found this one trying to get on a ship to Eden-5" a masked thin curvy figure in skintight armor walked into the room dragging a smaller stockier one with brown hair behind it. Ten looked over and sighed "Nine, what have you brought me this time?"

"Well little ole' me?" She asked putting on a fake southern accent, although you couldn't see her face everyone knew that nine was a woman because of her slender figure and her suggestive demeanor.

"Drop the act Nine who is this?"

"I simply brought one of the traitors that Four failed to catch, Three was far to easy to catch I have no idea how it took you this long."

"Screw you!" Three muttered through his bloody mouth and bruised face.

"Now now Three" said Nine spinning around and squatting to eye level with the defeated Three "Is that any way to speak to a lady?"

"I wouldn't exactly call you a lady" Muttered Three through broken teeth and spit blood onto her mask

"You know Three just because I'm a lady" Nine said slamming Three's head against her knee making him emit high shrill cries "Doesn't mean I cant kick your ass."

"I don't agree with your methods Nine" said Ten as Three's cries faded

"But you love my results!"

"Yes I do... Speaking of that Kain got us the DNA sample we required for the plan"

"Oh have I been waiting for this! Give it too me!"

Ten produced a single blue hair from a utility belt he wore "Don't waste it Nine you are imperative to the mission"

"You have no idea how long I have been waiting to play a siren!" She said gleefully "This is the role I was born to play!"

"You'll never catch him you know..." drawled Three "He'd kill all of you in a heartbeat, if he still has those."

"Oh Three you always were to serious" She said as she delivered a quick kick to his jaw knocking him out cold "Now gimme that hair Ten." Ten handed the hair over and as soon as it touched he mesh of Nine's gloved hands it disappeared in a red flash. "Ohhhh" Nine moaned as her armor began to change and ripple "You have no idea how good this feels" red sparks began to travel across the surface of the armor and her appearance began to shift and warp until she was identical to Maya "How do I look honey?" she jibed Ten

"We have no relationship outside the plan Nine I must inform you once again, otherwise you look identical to the weaker siren"

"Well you are no fun Ten, I hope you treat Three well"

"We will have a heart to heart talk." Ten muttered as he materialized a battleaxe in his hands "No go do whatever it is you need to. But stick to the plan!"

"Sure I will" said Nine as she flounced out of the room " I might have a little fun along the way though."

* * *

"What the hell!" yelled Axton as he jumped away from an explosion and slid into cover next to Salvador "How did Kain get so many loaders?"

"No idea ese'" yelled Salvador back "Have you seen Brick anywhere?"

"He went into his rage and ran off somewhere, I don't know." Axton yelled peeking over the rubble he was using as cover "Brick! We need some help here!" He fired several shots over the mound of debris but it only seemed to agitate the Rocket Loader even more.

"BLOOOOOOD"Brick yelled tearing into the loader that had Axton and Salvador pinned down, he ripped the metal body of the robot in half like it was tissue paper. "Still the best around" He chuckled "That puny little thing had you pinned down?"

"Brick,"Axton said "That thing had more firepower than all of Eden-7! Where on Pandora did Kain get that kind of military tech?"

"Obviously not on Pandora pal" Brick said in his thick deep baritone "We don't need to discuss where he got the robots, we just need to... SMASH ALL OF THEM!" He yelled as he began to turn an sprint towards a few loaders coming down the hill at him yelling "IMMA KILL YOU KAIN"

"What is wrong with that man?"Axton asked turning to Salvador

"When in Rome ese..." Salvador sad as he turned and charged after Brick "Save some for me hombre!"

"What! When in Rome what do I do? Wear a toga? Sal!... Goddammit." Axton said as he jogged after Brick and Salvador. "This is a bad idea" Axton mumbled to himself, he was putting everyone in danger, not that he really cared for Brick or Salvador they were both just angry shouting idiots, Mordecai was too depressing and while Lilith was pretty... but she was a total bitch. Maya was really the only approachable person on the team, she was nice, she was fun, and best of all she was pretty. Recently she had shown an interest in him and that was even better, a new deal could be worked out with Kain and his associates once Maya was out of their custody. If being a backstabbing traitor for all these years had taught him anything it was never too negotiate at a disadvantage. The only thing unaccounted for here was Zer0, that freak was worse than Mordecai always being in the wrong place at the wrong time, it had left but who knows when it will come back. Maya always used to stare at Zer0 whenever he was in the room but recently she had started to get warm and cozy to him... He didn't know why but it probably didn't matter.

* * *

"Shit!" yelled Kain as he looked down his binoculars at a trio of people tearing through his new loaders, they did not look happy. "The biggest one and the short pandoran one are getting close" he said to a trio of bandits standing nearby "Albert, Carmine, go in and check on the prisoner, Bernie you grab the AMR up on that ridge and rain down some pain."

A resounding "Yes sir" came from the three men and they all briskly walked off to do their assigned jobs, not that they had much choice, c0rruption just removes all of the arguing from the bandit king schtick. He walked toward the igloo that he had trapped Maya in with a firm determination, that traitor Axton had sold him out and was coming here to kill him, better yet he had brought the two most brutal mercs on all of Pandora with him. The only midget more terrifying than a meat Popsicle that goddamn Salvador who somehow managed kill hundreds of bandits when not even standing as high as his belt. The other was the walking freaking apocalypse that was Brick, he had opened two vaults killed what was probably worth two planets full of bandits, and did it all without ever lifting a gun. This guy killed the Destroyer with his fists! He wasn't legitimately scared of either of them but killing two legends today, that would drive his blood pressure to high so it look like he would just have to settle for killing one of them. Before all of this huff and puff however he needed to get Maya out of here, because unlike the Mexican midget and the man mountain, he was actually scared by the man he worked for. Ten made explicitly sure that Maya was to be brought to New Haven as soon as it was confirmed that Zer0 was not coming. Kain had seen people who disappointed Ten before, they were no longer around.

"Oh Maya!" Kain yelled in cheery voice "I'm home!" Kain waltzed through the heavy iron door he had installed, "Are you two done yet? I expect her to be firmly gagged and bound men! She isn't that dangerous!" Kain said turning into the main room and coming face too face with a blood smeared Maya

"You think that I'm not that intimidating?" she said bringing a ball of pulsating blue energy up to eye level with him.

"Now Maya..." said Kain putting his hands up calmly "Lets take a second here..."

"No Kain, you're out of time" Maya said as she opened her hand.

* * *

Axton emptied his clip for the third time on this one danged loader and yelled over to Salvador "What the hell man! Kain has got some serious hardware!"

"I know Axton"said Salvador in a strained voice "But we already agreed that we need to kill it not admire it and take it out to dinner!"

"Well actually you just said "When in Rome"... I have no idea what you meant." Axton yelled back opening a pack of gummy worms.

"Screw you! This is a serious mission!" Salvador said firing another clip into one of Kain's loaders "With no Maya and no Zer0 I'm depending on you ese!"

"Fine... but after we rescue Maya I'm gonna need to borrow the good room in the HQ."

"For what?"

"I think you know Sal," said Axton with a wink as he threw a grenade over his piece of rusted metal cover.

"You are gonna try to-" Salvador said before he was cut off by a huge explosion that knocked him and Salvador off their feet and five feet down the hill they were fighting up, they lay flat on their backs as their ears rang and vision began to refocus. "What kinda grenade mod do you have hombre!" Salvador yelled struggling u to one knee, he looked off into the distance and saw Claptrap's igloo a smoking ruin. A dark figure stood alone in the center of the crater where Claptraps house used to stand. Another, less dignified, figure was rocketing down the hill at them and crash landed in the cover that Axton was hiding behind.

"Whew" said an extra-crispy Kain "That girl of yours sure can pack a punch." Kain immediately rolled forward to his feet and dusted of the ash and debris while Axton and Salvador stood slack jawed at his almost instant recovery. "Wanna hear a funny joke?" he jibed.

"Sure..." replied Salvador very hesitantly

"I don't know any" Kain replied pulling out a pistol and shooting Salvador four times in the chest, Axton yelled out and charged Kain with his axe but Kain quickly juked him and pressed his pistol up into Axton's abdomen "No dice my friend" Kain said as he fired a single shot that pierced through Axton and went out his back. "You shouldn't have gone back on our deal amigo, but I like you, so that bullet only skimmed your heart, if someone comes and gets you to Zeds in the next forty-five minutes than maybe you might see tomorrow. Fuck with me again and you might end up like Sal over there. He isn't looking so good, Hey Sal are you OK" Kain yelled prodding him with his foot. Salvador responded by groaning and weakly reaching for a nearby gun. "No no no Salvador, you don't get to live today" He leveled the gun at Salvador's temple and said "Good night hermano, see you in hell." Salvador closed his eyes and uttered a small prayer to the god he had abandoned long ago. "Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy..." Salvador's last prayer was halted however when a long thin arrow sprouted out of the arm that Kain was wielding his gun with and Kain muttered "Aw hell" as a small explosion sent him flying backwards.

"Hello Kain, we have a score to settle."

"Zer0... Its a shame you had to come here... This planet changes people, look what it did to me!"

" You were always a sick son of a bitch Kain, the only reason I didn't put you down before was because Ten said he needed you. Kain I will kill you, you are a disgrace to my race"

"Don't you mean "our" race Zer0? They did give me an awful lot of your DNA?"

"And do you think that that makes you anymore of my race than it does Ten, or One, or Four? You are all just copies of the original."

"Enough of this talk! We will end this Zer0, you and me right here... And I fully expect you to win."

"And what about the angry Siren running down the hill at you? That may be something that will turn the battle in my favor."

"One of us will be long dead by the time she reaches us, now no more stalling Zer0, its time for you to kill me."

"May you fight with honor Seven"

"Seven... I haven't been called that in a long time brother..." Kain said as he drew two tanto knives and a few tears welled up in his eyes "Best of luck against Ten brother, he holds all the cards now."

"He does" said Zer0 drawing his katana "But does he know how to play the game?"

The two brothers then entered a dueling dance that was a fighting style so refined and elegant that Maya and Brick who were running down the hill to aid their friends were entranced by it and slowed to a stop. Even Axton and Salvador whose lifeblood was dripping onto the icy ground were amazed by the snatches of this fight they caught through there fading in and out of consciousness. Zer0 and Kain fought for three minutes and twelve seconds precisely and all that it took for Kain to be exposed and Zer0 to deliver his winning blow was a half step too far forward. Zer0 left a bloody gash that went from Kain's hip to his shoulder and that launched him tumbling through the air into a snowbank. The crimson blood Zer0 left on the virgin snow was equivalent to the paints that DaVinci used on his canvas because Zer0 blood and death were Zer0's paints, and the entire universe his canvas. As Kain fell he struggled to his knees to deliver his final words to Zer0, as all villains do and impart his poetic justice.

"Zer0..." He stuttered "Do it, kill me now, absolve me of all I have done, forgive me..."

Zer0 stared at his former comrade, a man who he had once respected and fought beside, who had saved his life and been saved by Zer0. It was a shame to kill his own brother, not one he was born and bound to by the blood ties of family, but bound to by the bands of steel men form under the heat of battle, and the unbreakable bonds they created during their torture at the hands of the Atlas corporation. It was a shame that Ten had twisted this once honorable man into a disgusting and perverted version of himself. However when Kain and Zer0 had fought it had been like old times, Zer0 had not fought Kain, rapist and murderer, king pf the psychos and scourge of the east coast, but he had fought Seven, the honorable warrior who he was proud to be comrades, no, to be friends with. During this entire battle night had fallen and Zer0 was now bathed in the red light of the flaming loaders he had destroyed. He raised his katana to kill Kain and end his misery he heard a woman's voice call him.

"Zer0! Zer0 don't do it! Don't fall to his level!"

Zer0 recognized the voice as Maya's but it felt so far away, he had tasted Kain's blood and needed to finish him. He glanced over to Maya, bathed in the cool blue light of a runners headlights, he Brick helping Salvador with his wounds, Mordecai and Gaige cleaning up the last of the loaders, and Maya, amidst all the chaos calling out to him. She was beckoning him to come back to the land of order and peace, a world where he could be safe. Zer0 was tempted to leave Kain to die in his misery and join Maya... until he saw Axton lean on Maya... and embrace each other... and passionately kiss... The betrayal he felt! He came back for her! He defied his rational thoughts! He broke his own code to try to see her again and tell her how he felt, but no! Pretty boy Axton got to her first... Zer0 decided that then and there that order and peace were not for people like him, instead of joining Maya in the pale blue light of her innocence and serenity he would stay here and wallow in his chaos and rage and darkness. He leaned into Kain's ear and whispered "Kain, I do not forgive you. I forgive Seven the man you used to be." With that Zer0 ran Kain through with his blade and looked into his dammed brethrens eyes as the last words Kain spoke were "Thank... You..." and with that final burst Kain the king of the psychos died and Zer0 fled of into the night, the fire and chaos left behind dwarfed by the fire and rage still burning inside him.

Zer0 stood on a hill overlooking Lairs Burg, contemplating his next action. He had cooled down after his rage at Maya after the battle with Kain. His emotions had clouded his judgment before and he had out himself and Three in mortal danger. He could no longer deny that he had feeling for Maya but after his asinine behavior a few days ago his feelings were now unrequited. "This is a good thing" thought Zer0 " I am a cold calculating assassin and I do not have feelings. I should never have gotten involved with girl, and I will not get involved with a siren." He pulled out his katana and observed the scratches and kinks it had obtained from his battle with Kain. Despite all of the violence that permeated this universe and all the unworthy men Zer0 had slain, Kain was different, Zer0had just killed one of his own brothers. Although Kain had been psychopathic and a deranged murderer he was still Zer0's brother. Zer0 stared off into the distance and saw the bright lights of Sanctuary floating in the sky and made a promise too himself. He would not

leave until Ten was finished with. No more running or hiding, he would end it on Pandora. And maybe for once he could feel what it is like to be the hero.

* * *

A/N:Thank you all who read or reviewed but this is as far as I promised I'd go, if you want more let me know, if you want another story or me to stop altogether let me know.

For possibly the last time...

Adios mustachios


	6. Chapter 6

C0unting Zer0s Episode 2

Ris1ng Num8ers

Chapter 1

A/N: Hello everyone! I am very glad that most of you wanted me to continue my story. I do have plans for a 5 chapter episode two and a 6-8 chapter episode three, I just wanted to make sure that people wanted to read my story. I wont ask that again either and as long as one person is willing to read this then I will continue writing it, Huzzah!

_awesome9462: _I will be continuing my story so now I forbid you to eat my babies, take that!

_MonsterJunkie_: Muchas Gracicas! You really saved me with my chapter five misprint, I sincerely apologize and it will never happen again. I just wanted to give you a formal pat on the back, I wrote several endings and posted the wrong draft. Thank you!

_Ruff1298:_ Thank you for the in depth reviews, I am going to try to go back and re-edit my early chapters but right know I am full steam ahead on adding more content. If you are willing to beta read that would be very much appreciated.

* * *

Three drifted in and out of consciousness, he had been in this dungeon for days... It had been about a week or maybe two. He didn't care. He just wanted this damn ordeal to be over, Ten had tortured him for hours on end in the most grotesque and brutal ways that it made him shudder when he thought about them. The worst part of this entire ordeal was that Ten had yet to ask him any questions!

"Hello Three, are you ready for your treatment?" said an all to familiar voice.

"Listen Ten what do you want? I can give you whatever information you want. I can give you locations of my money stashes, weapon caches, all of my contacts, anything you want!"

Ten slowly walked to the opposite wall of the dingy room where Three was shackled to the wall. He slowly picked up a fire poker and studied the red hot part. "Is that all Three?"

"Please Ten... I will do anything!" Three said with panic in his voice as he started to pull against the shackles holding him to the wall. "You haven't even asked me any questions yet!"

"This is not a matter of asking questions or interrogation." said Ten calmly lifting the fire poker onto his shoulder and resting it on his shoulder. "This is not a matter of interrogation." he said smashing the iron fire poker into Three's left kneecap "This is a matter of revenge." Ten again slammed the fire poker into Three again this time making a delicious cracking sound come from his rib area. "You and Zer0 have cost me more than you can ever imagine."

"Listen Ten" Three said coughing up blood "Why are you putting me and Zer0 in the same boat... We worked together a long time ago I could help you now."

Ten looked at Three questioningly "You are so quick to turn on those you used to stand with." Ten raised the fire poker and hit Three across the face with it knocking out a tooth "You have less honor than Zer0, Three. Do not so readily abandon your allies." Ten tossed the poker back into the pit where it had lay, "I do not need any help with apprehending the other traitors Three. I always have a plan." Ten said as he walked to the heavy metal door that led out of the dungeon. As Ten opened it and began to walk through it Three yelled after him "You need me Ten! You need me! Nobody knows Zer0 like me! You will never catch him without my help! Do you hear me Ten! You can't just leave me here!" Three's pleas were only met by a slamming door. Three hung his head and sobbed, the only words running through his head were "I'll never get out of here.

"That is not the man I hired." said a worried voice after watching Three's interrogation on a TV monitor, when I hired Ten he was a professional, what has turned him into this?"

"He was always like this sir." said a tall muscular Navajo man in a black suit and tie "He is very dangerous I wish you had contacted us sooner about this."

"He seemed like any other corporate assassin when I first gave him a job."

"Then sir you were sadly mistaken. He is no assassin but a failed experiment of ours that we wish to, uh... re-appropriate"

"Do you think I don't know that!" The man sitting in the shadows said slamming his fist on a desk "That monster killed me! He had one of his cronies rip me apart and eat my flesh! That, thing, whatever it is a monster. And now he has stolen my company, my city, my money, and now he has uploaded a virus that shut down my New-U stations... I am going to kill him."

"Calm down Mr. Blake, this is the reason you contacted us, and the association I work for is willing to help you on one condition."

"What is it?"

"All of the tech and DNA recovered from this group of experiments, on and off Pandora is the sole property of the Atlas Corporation. Even the one referred to as Zer0, I understand you have a bounty on him but we require you to rescind that."

"Why are you so interested in these "experiments", you said they were failed?"

"They are Mr. Blake but we at the Atlas corporation have learned from our time on Pandora and are not interested in leaving any loose ends here."

"Fine... But if you can't take care of this I sure as hell will!"

"You have no need to worry Mr. Blake, everything will be under control."

* * *

Maya sat down in the HQ's meeting room her head in her hands, her elbows on the table. She felt terrible. She felt guilty. And she had no idea why! It was baffling! She felt so ashamed about what she had done to Zer0, that she had driven him to kill a defenseless Kain in cold blood. For anybody else it would be in a normal days work to execute a dangerous prisoner but Zer0 held himself to a sort of, code of honor. He would kill people obviously, and Zer0 was not a white knight like anyone on Pandora, but he had never killed an unarmed opponent. Maya had changed that, Maya had pushed and pulled Zer0 until for some reason he broke. He slew Kain while he was laying on the ground bleeding. Zer0 has essentially executed him. And it was her fault. What had been going through her head? She had called out to him, tried to calm him down, and as soon as he looked back at her and began to come back to his senses, she began to kiss Axton. There had to be something wrong with her! She didn't even like Axton that much... He was nice and all but he needed a serious reality check, he had expected Maya to sleep with him after one kiss. One kiss! Now Maya obviously isn't amazing in the whole personal interaction area of knowledge but after exchanging one kiss with a girl she isn't exactly expected to jump right into your bed, right? She wanted to be with Zer0! But she had pretty much ruined that chance. Zer0 hated her now too, Zer0 had come back to try and help them, to help her, but she had returned the favor by sucking face with Axton. Zer0 had to have felt something to stop and turn to her when he was in his hunt and kill mode, and she had dragged him through the mud by her blatantly slutty behavior.

She had been running through the situation for the two weeks since the incident and she kept asking herself what she could do to make it up to Zer0 but she didn't see any way. Her only hope of ever being with him would be to stick with this plan she had came up with, she couldn't even believe that she thought this was a good idea at one time. She wanted to be with Zer0 so she should act like a goddamn slut and try to get with Axton. Great idea Maya! This was strategy was on par with a high school student! And now thanks to her genius goddamn plan Axton kept hitting on her. Not like "Hey you wanna go out" hitting on no that would be to simple... He kept making advances on her with innuendos that were on par with Moxxi's. "Moxxi!" Maya suddenly yelled aloud "She is good with men... stuff" Maya immediately got up and began to power walk to the bar, Zer0 probably wasn't the most normal man to try to get but if anybody on Pandora could help her it was definitely Moxxi.

* * *

Salvador sat at the bar gently stirring his drink of tequila, it was three o' clock and had usually pounded three or four glasses of this stuff by this time. He didn't understand why he was so, unattractive to his liquor today. After the incident with Kain he had felt odd, he was calmer, drinking less, being reasonable, and hadn't craved human flesh for a little while now. Basically he wasn't Salvador anymore. And he was utterly confused as to what had happened in the final battle with Kain, he was at gunpoint in his final seconds he had always fantasied that he would go out in a super bad ass way like a giant explosion or while murdering a thousand bandits. How did he go out? Reciting a prayer. Like a damn idiot. Religion was a thing he had lost a long time ago, being on Pandora he was conditioned to be hard and bloodthirsty, not anything usually preached by religions. His mother, god bless her soul, would have hated to see him like this a bloodthirsty maniac, she always preached about love and peace and that because Pandora brought out the worst in people I had to be one of the very best. Then she was murdered by psycho bandits and helped create the Salvador everyone knows today.

Salvador was so wrapped up in his thoughts he barely noticed when Maya strolled into the bar. She was on a mission to talk to Moxxi but when she noticed Salvador with alcohol in front of him that was not already on its way down his throat.

"Sal whats up with you? This alcohol in front of you isn't being drunken... That is not something Salvador would do. Are you sure you aren't an alien or something?"

"Hardy har har." said Salvador "I've just been thinking about our fight with Kain and what went down there."

"Me too" Maya said sitting next to Salvador at the bar "I've been feeling pretty guilty about what I did to Zer0."

"What? What did you do to him?"  
"I don't want to talk about it, sorry. Whats going on with you?"

Salvador shot Maya a look and downed the glass of tequila, "I was at gunpoint with a madman trying to kill me and I started praying. Praying. I am the scourge of Pandora and I'm not supposed to go out like that. It was supposed to be a blaze of glory or a final vengeance against somebody. I went out accepting the end."

"The end? We have New-U stations for a reason."

"I don't know Maya, Kain was so sure we would die there, I think something might be up with the New-U stations. I mean why would Kain go through so much trouble to kill us if we would re spawn at the nearest station?"

"No... Don't say things like that. That would be devastating to us, one life... What would that make us?"

"Normal people. Would it be that bad Maya? I have lived so long and done many horrible things, maybe this is His way of making me pay for all I have done."

Maya worriedly looked at Salvador and got up from her seat "This is messed up Salvador! Don't accept death! You are Salvador the Gunzerker! You. Don't. Give. Up. And why are you religious all of a sudden? You eat dead people!"

"I know, I know, I am the horrible murdering manaic in the group. That is why I am concerned with my soul, the fact that I am still considered a psychopath among our group of mass murderers is a little troubling."

"Just don't go soft on me Sal... Everyone around is changing, please stay like the crazy homicidal midget we know and love." Maya said moving behind the bar towards the back room.

"I'll think about it chica" Salvador said sliding his glass of the edge of the table and swaggering out of the bar.

Maya looked concernedly after Salvador, he still had his tough guy attitude sure, but he seemed very distraught and tired. "Oh I hope he doesn't do anything dumb..." Maya debated going after him he did seem like he needed some moral support... "My problems aren't that bad." Maya finally caved saying, "Sal wait up!" following him out of the bar.

* * *

Zer0 sat alone in the dark, he was sitting on a rotted wooden stool grinding his sword on a whetstone. It had obtained several nicks and scratches from its fight against Kain's tantos. The only other blades on Pandora that could stand against the unwavering metal of his katana. Exactly what metal it was Zer0 didn't know but it was the same material used to make all of his brothers weapons, and probably his sister too. "Kain, Four, Three, and Ten were here... Who else?" sad Zer0 introspectively. His entire family was not made of murdering psychopaths but the majority were. He didn't think that a family reunion along two sirens would be a great idea. The two groups generally didn't get along... so why did he used to feel such an attraction to Maya? The two were about as compatible as fire and ice, Maya who was extroverted, determined, and, still retained her innocence. Himself on the other hand, introverted, deceiving, and he bore no more innocence than the monsters inside the Vaults that he was hunting. All those Vaults,why was it that feral monsters bent on killing people were trapped inside them but not him. He had killed many more men than Destroyer and Warrior combined but since he did it with a conscious intent of doing it he wasn't considered a monster. What hypocrites! They assumed because he was of able body and mind that he was able to control these urges, well he wasn't! He was like a shark, when he smelled blood he went to kill mode and couldn't control himself any more than the man mountain Brick could. The killing was like a drug! Once somebody started it they couldn't stop, and nobody else understood that! No one else wanted to stop the violence! They all reveled in it and thought it made them hero's. It doesn't! Hero's spare the lives of their enemies or kill them in fair combat not kill them in cold blood!

"Like I did to Kain..." Zer0 suddenly realized "I am as bad as all those I condemn. I was weak and emotional, the two things I must never be. Maya has panted a seed of weakness in me, one that Ten will surely exploit, he must die before I am destroyed by this." Zer0 decided suddenly getting up and making his way to exit of his cave.

"But where am I hiding Zer0?" said a presumptuous staticy voice "A dilemma indeed Zer0. I know where you are but you have no idea of my location. And don't even think of tracing my echo I had a technical wizard whip up a signal cloaker for me."

" Only Kain or Gaige could have developed that kind of technology Ten and as far as I know Kain is dead and Gaige is in Sanctuary."

"What about Three?" Ten said chuckling

"Ten, I will find and kill you, Three has no means to defend himself other than running and hiding, he will be the far easier of the two of us to catch. By the end of the week you will be lying in a pool of blood praying to whatever dark god you believe in to save you. Prepare yourself Ten, a storm is coming." Zer0 said closing the Echo call.

* * *

Mick Zaford sat in the behind the bar at Holy Spirits, more bored than he had been in a long time. Since the Vault hunters had helped him clean up the Hodunk's gang there had been nothing to do around here but make money of the people of Overlook. About a week ago some robots had attacked that looked like those old Hyperion ones but the Zaford's had shown them a few things about fighting an Irish family. Although they didn't have as many members as those inbred half-wit Hodunk's each and every one of them were willing to fight to the death to protect the one thing that was the most important in the entire universe, their bar. Three brave souls had died in that fight, Jimmy, Paul, and Angus. They were all good boys who's families were mourning them. Although he tried not to be cold hearted Mick could barely even care about it, he had seen so many of his family die. Brave men and women who gladly gave their lives to protect the family.

Mick was tired, tired of the death, he had saved up enough money to buy shuttle fair back to his home on earth, he reasoned some of his family was still hanging around in Boston, the Zaford's couldn't have all died out. Mick looked down to the inside of his wrist and looked at the tattoo he had there. It was a black rose with the name "Katherine" under it, Mick had gotten it soon after he had immigrated to Pandora. It was the name of hos beautiful wife who had... "Stop thinkin' 'bout those dark times Mick, mournin' and gon' do nothin'" Mick said to himself, his thick Irish brouge making his speech patterns hard to understand. He wanted to leave this godforsaken plane but for some reason couldn't leave this damn place without a form of final revenge. Against the planet as whole, the skags the bandits,the robots, the whole damn place.

The only people who had ever helped him with no strings attached were those vault hunters, the helped him protect his home and family for a few bucks or a shiny gun. Why? That was the same question he asked himself every day. He owed them a debt that couldn't be repaid by money or favor, it was a life debt. Mick Zaford would forever be in debt to a group of immoral mass murdering psychopaths. "Well in all fairness my family isn't much better either." Mick said to himself laughing while filling a pint glass. Mick planted himself in a chair and put his feet up on the bar.

"Here's to getting some revenge on this arsehole of a planet!" Mick said as he started to chug the pint of beer. As soon as the first of Mick's home brew beer touched his lips the door to the now vacant Holy Spirits burst open and a shadowy figure stood there wielding a katana in his right hand. Mick fell out of his chair, spilling his ale all over himself, and began to stutter and cough "Zer0, what in 'ell are you doin' 'ere?"

"I have arrived to, exact a debt from you Mick, stand up and face me."

"I new havin' friends like you was to good to be true." Mick said drawing a pistol "Have at me then! I can't say I won't go down withou' a fight!" Mick jumped up and rushed Zer0 yelling an intelligible cry and raining slugs from his magnum on Zer0's chest. Each slug passed through Zer0 and hit the wall behind him and when Mick drew close Zer0 disappeared and and re-appeared next to him striking his throat with the blunt side of his katana, knocking him to the floor.

"Mick I have not come, for a debt of blood, I need your help now."

"Wha' could you possibly need 'elp from me for?"

"Information is, what I need Mick, no one else can help"

"I'm listenin'."

Zer0 dropped to one knee and looked at Mick eye to... mask, and said "I need to find and kill Ten the assassin, and you are one of the few people I think I can trust."

"Why can't you trust that Vault hunter team you have up in Sanctuary?"

"I suspect we have a traitor in our organization, Ten knows thing he shouldn't. You are not a part of our group and owe me a debt. I feel I can trust you, don't let me down."

"You think you can walk in _my_ bar and demand _my_ help Zer0! Do you honestly think that is how it works!" Mick yelled a he jumped to his feet and started yelling in Zer0's face "I only got one goddamn thing to say to you!" Mick said spraying spit all over Zer0's visor while Zer0 stood there as still as a statue "Let me go get my figh'in hurl." Mick said slyly as he whipped out his Echo device "Seamus! We're gon' need guns! Lotsa guns..."

* * *

A/N: Woohooo! The first chapter of Episode 2! Than you to each and every person who wanted me to keep writing but unfortunate now you'll never be rid of me! I hope you all aren't to thrown off by Mick's accent because he will be a recurring character. I have been waiting for a long time to bring him into the story and his personality is being heavily influenced by the Dropkick Murphy's new album "Signed and Sealed in Blood". Also if you don't know what a hurl is google it, you should know, if you do know what a hurl is good for you you get Irish kudos. They are the best kind of kudos.

Please R&R

Adios Mustachios!


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